General Question

Why do some people look alike who aren't related?

Not just similar, but there seems there are certain types of people. I heard once that there are 14 different faces. I don’t have an example of this, but I’m sure that I can find one without much trouble.

Has anyone else heard about the 14 different faces? Is there a list of recurring faces that occur in different cultures?

7 Answers

First, one must understand that the way people look is determined by our genes. Some genes contribute to physical traits, called phenotypes. A face is made up of a few different characteristics: hair color, eye color, nose shape, etc. If two people have similar genes, even from two different sets of parents, they will look alike. As for the 14 faces bit, I’m calling BS.

And so on, for an array of different points. This provides humans with amazing diversity, something which has helped us become such a successful species. So, it’s like rolling a die for each point. You’ll get a lot of randomness and people who don’t look alike. Eventually, just out of sheer randomness, you’ll end up with people who do share the same traits on all or most points and they will share a similar phenotype.

One of the current theories of our evolution, as well as of our anthropological history, is that every human is descended from an exceedingly small group of mating pairs (about 1000 couples). Humans are incredibly closely related to each other compared with other species…so it’s not surprising that this might be expressed in a visible similarity.

I wish I knew the answer to this question, but I don’t. When I was in junior high school there was a girl that came from a different elementary school that looked like she could be my twin sister. It was freaky! She ended up being a really good friend of mine, but it was never spoken out loud by the two of us that we looked alike. We were quite different, otherwise, she was an amazing athlete and very outgoing. At the time, I was shy and didn’t come into my own athletically until 10th grade. I haven’t seen her since high school, it would be interesting to see her now.